UPS dropped this one on my doorstep earlier today.



Kimber 84M Montana (previously a 7-08) with a Broughton 1:7.3" twist barrel chambered in 6XC. I had the gunsmith recontour the barrel so that it matched the factory barrel through the shank, but tapered to .6" at 24". It's topped with a Nightforce 2.5-10x32 with Zero Stop in Nightforce Ultralight rings on top of a Talley 20MOA base. Weighs 7lbs on the nose (minus the bipod).

Picture of the factory barrel next to this one...




I plan on shooting 115gr Berger VLD Hunting bullets if things go as planned. Should make a dandy longrange, lightweight, critter-gitter.

Looks nice - subtle changes that should pay off.

New barrel certainly mimics the factory well....great job. Who was the smith?

IT&D did the barrel work

Cool dude -

i dig it!!!


Dibs!!

Sweet.

Looks nice! What was the difference in weight between the two barrels?

I really like that it mics .6 at the muzzle.

Did you have to open the barrel channel?

If not, does it still float?

Couldn't say. When I sent the barrel to the smith, it was a big ol' axle. He whittled it down for me.



I haven't opened the barrel channel yet, but I will. It fits in the stock as it is, but it's not floating. Close, but it touches. It won't take much to open it up though.

How much did the recontour cost?
Tim

That looks like a heck of an antelope rig!

Hart dupped the contour of my Montana factory barrel and it did not add to the cost of the barrel.

I don't remember offhand. The barrel was originally one of the heavy varmint contours that I found on 6BR.com (beats waiting 6 months).

Would love to hear your thoughts on the scope after shooting it a lil bit.

I can like that a lot!

Nice! It will certainly take a new barrel to improve my 7/08 MT.

That should balance really nice. Sweet rig and I like the contour change.

That Kimber still kicking your ass?

I'll be sure to post them in the Optics section, but I'm guessing they'll be favorable. I've become a huge NF fan as of late.

Thanks for the info. I really like that barrel weight!

My only nit to pick is the barrel, to my eyes, is too long for the little MT forearm. To me, it's borderline with a 22" barrel.

But everyone's different...

Beings I've never owned one, would it be possible to measure the length of the forarm and see what barrel length meets the 3/5s rule? IIRC that is the ratio Stephen Dobbs recommends as the forearm to barrel ratio to be be most appealing (past issue of Sports Afield).

Yep. I have a 50yo 870 police that has had the choke cut off (18in) with ghost ring sights that shoots Rem low-recoil slugs into tighter groups than the Kimber, with a 2.5-8 Leupy. No schit. My world-class gunsmith buddy said he'd never seen or even heard of a rifle that inaccurate.

Where is the forearm measured from? Recoil lug?

I am unable to put my hands on the article right now, but my guess since it is being compared to the barrel length that the recoil lug would be as good a place as any.

FYI.

I called IT&D to ask pricing. To recontour a target to a Doug #4 is $45 for the recontour, $20 to recrown, and $13 return shipping. $78 bucks all up with a 7-14 day turn around. Seems mighty reasonably priced. The gentleman, whose name I cannot remember from 4 minutes ago, was knowledgable, eager to answer my questions, and genrally a real pleasure to speak with.

It was probably Dave you spoke with.

Was a # 4 as small as they would recountour? Don't mean to thread jack.

Sell it before "The Gay" gets its claws in too deep.
Or paint it rainbow leporard and "Do You" boo boo.

All jokes aside she looks like a killing machine.

What advantages do you foresee over a plain Montana 243?

Does it now balance neutral or muzzle heavy?

I HAD a Montana 7mm-08 that sounds a lot like yours. I'm a big Kimber Montana fan (currently own three), but you couldn't keep three rounds inside a pie-plate at 100 yards with that rifle. I ended up sending it back to Kimber and they test fired it with the same results, so offered to re-barrel to .243, .257, .308, or .338 Federal, but I wasn't interested in any of those, so convinced them to send me a .223.

I was more than impressed with their customer service department and they didn't care that I bought the rifle secondhand. If yours is giving you fits, I'd send it back to them and see what they say. Really, what have you got to lose at this point?

They can do whatever you'd like. The barrel on mine is around a No. 2 or so contour.



Main advantage is mag box room with the long 6mm bullets. That and burning less powder. And of course I'm a huge fan of the 250 case, which the 6xc is based on.

With this scope, it's pretty close to neutral. Run something like a 3.5-10x40 Leupold on it, and my guess is it would be slightly muzzle heavy, but that's not a bad thing in my book.

I got to meet Dave (IT&D) twice now. Once this past May to drop off my barreled action, and once in July to pick it up again. His shop/house is about an hour from where I work. Really nice guy, very reasonable prices and work done right. He told me up front it would be 2 months because his metal refinishing guy was recovering from a heart attack. He had nice things to say for guys from the Campfire here.

Why not just buy clark98ut's old barrel? Cheap fix.

Plus he twisted it faster for longer bullet options.....

Nice rig clark98nut.


Travis

Because he'd have nothing to complain about.


Travis

Edge of receiver ring to muzzle divided by 2, subtract 1".

True story!

Dan, that's a super setup. Congrats!

Been doing some load work. Settled on a bullet seating depth, at least until after my antelope hunt next week. Trying out a couple different charges of H4350.





Shot these at 300 yards earlier today. Squares are approximately 1". I shot a 3-shot group, then later shot another 3-shot group at the same target. The 38gr load is probably getting a little on the warm side, but nothing terrible, and if I didn't have any problems in this heat, I doubt I ever will.